Convicted murderer gets life without parole

A man involved in two murders this past summer in Mukilteo and Arlington was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole Tuesday, Oct. 23.

Because Anthony Hernandez-Cano, 18, pled guilty in August to two counts of aggravated murder, prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty.

Cano lived in Mukilteo with his girlfriend, Lendsay Meza, 21, who was also arrested in connection with the two killings. Another male, Hassani Hamadi Hassani, 20, was arrested for the murder in Mukilteo.

On July 3, officers from the Mukilteo Police Department responded to a report of a body just after 10 a.m., where they found the victim, Ezekiel M. Kelly, a 22-year-old man from Everett. His body was discovered off Beverly Park Road on Pacific Place.

Kelly’s T-shirt was covered in blood, and there were loops of packing tape around his neck.

Next to his body were two .22-caliber shell casings, and a detective found an 8-inch blade that had dry blood on it.

Kelly had been stabbed 27 times, and shot in the head.

Officers soon discovered Kelly’s death was related to that of Mohamed H. Adan, 21, whose body was found July 1 at Blue Stilly Park in Arlington.

After his arrest, Cano admitted to killing Adan. He told detectives that he had been released from jail June 30, and Meza had told him Adan was watching her as she slept in her car at their apartment complex.

Cano said he, Meza, and a few friends located Hassani and Adan. Cano told detectives Hassani and Adan were close friends and considered each other “cousins.”

Adan willingly got in the car with Cano and others, and was assaulted with a baseball bat behind the Albertsons on Mukilteo Speedway.

Cano then brought Adan back to his apartment complex and bound him with an electrical cord and tape. Cano repeatedly burned him with a cigarette, and later drove him to the Arlington area with his girlfriend and another friend.

Cano initially shot Adan twice in the foot and abandoned him on a gravel road, before returning to the scene and shooting Adan in the head.

Meza’s car was used in both crimes, and was discovered on surveillance footage near Arlington.

At the Monday, Oct. 29, Mukilteo City Council special meeting, Police Chief Cheol Kang applauded his investigators’ work on the case, noting cases like this typically take a lot longer to go to trial, let alone have a sentence so soon after arrest.

Hassani and Meza are currently awaiting trial for their roles in the murders.